Gauchos ruin Rainbows’ debut

Tyler Kuresa played spoiler in Hawaii’s Big West Conference debut.

The UC Santa Barbara first baseman hit the go-ahead two-run double with one out in the ninth inning and closer Dylan Hecht got Kalei Hanawahine to ground into a double play to clinch a 7-6 victory over Hawaii in the conference opener for both teams on Thursday night.

The Rainbows (5-17, 0-1) battled back from a three-run deficit only to have Kuresa to spoil their conference debut in front of a Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,606.

Kuresa singled on the first pitch from Scott Squier (0-4), who came on in relief after UH rallied to tie the game at 5-5 in the seventh.

Trevor Podratz went 2-for-4 with a career-high four RBIs and Conner George went 1-for-3 with two walks and two runs scored for UH.

"I’m still not hitting the ball as good as I like but I’m starting to work counts better and getting some better at-bats," Podratz said. "Offensively we need to step it up a little more because we need those big ones at the end."

Kuresa finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and Dalton Kelley was 2-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs for the Gauchos (13-10, 1-0).

Pi‘ikea Kitamura drew a four-pitch walk and Kaeo Aliviado singled to put the tying run on base with nobody out in the ninth.

Marc Flores followed with his second RBI of the game, driving a 2-0 pitch to right to score Kitamura to make it 7-6.

George, UH’s leading hitter coming in, tried to bunt the runners over but couldn’t and popped out to short for the first out.

Hanawahine, who entered the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement, grounded into a double play to end it.

"You’ve got to put the bunt down in that situation but you never know what would have happened after that," Hawaii coach Mike Trapasso said. "The reality is we didn’t pitch well enough."

UCSB had its leadoff hitter reach base seven times against a trio of UH pitchers who combined for five walks.

UH starter Connor Little failed to pitch into the seventh inning for the first time all year. The senior right-hander took a hard line drive off the knee in the fifth and finished the inning, but did not return for the sixth.

"He was done," Trapasso said. "I probably left him in a hitter too late. When I went out there, he said he could finish it, but I could tell he wasn’t that confident about it. He was hurting."

Kitamura and George each scored twice for the Rainbows, who are in a new league for the first time after 33 years in the Western Athletic Conference.

Aliviado had three of UH’s 10 hits but had two balls go off his glove in center, leading to three UCSB runs.

UH was hitting .353 (6-for-17) with the bases loaded before Podratz singled through the left side of the infield to drive in two in the fourth to make it 3-2.

Little took a line drive off his right knee with one out in the fifth that went for a double by Brandon Trinkwon.

He dropped to the ground and stayed down for over a minute before slowing getting to his feet.

Little took three warm-up tosses in front of Trapasso before the coach headed back to the dugout. Little promptly struck out Robby Nesovic before a two-out single by Kuresa put the Gauchos up 4-2.

Luke Swenson added to UCSB’s lead with the Gauchos’ third two-out hit of the game to score Maris in the sixth.

UH refused to let the game get out of reach as Podratz came up clutch again, delivering two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-4.

After Adam Hurley just missed bunting for a base hit, Podratz lifted a two-run single to center to score Flores and George.

UCSB starter Austin Pettibone left the game after a single by Real that put the tying run at second in the sixth. Reliever Greg Mahle came in to face Austin Wobrock, who was robbed off a single by Trinkwon at short to keep UCSB in front by a run.

UH evened the score in the seventh on a groundout by Flores to score Kitamura.